To Be Sick To Death Of Bloody Headlice!

[MissLofPubia]

My daughter is halfway through year one. She has had headlice an obscene amount of times. The longest she's gone without catching them again is 8 weeks. The school (so they say) aren't allowed to talk about it. Human rights and all that bollocks. It isn't just in her year, because every parent is complaining about it. I moaned at them yesterday and they said I was the second to complain just that day, but there is nothing they can do. They may see if they can send a letter out, maybe before the end of term. Maybe. But they can't victimise anyone. Can I? Can I randomly start grabbing kids hair, then screaming at parents? (Okay I know I can't, but I really want too!). Can I make signs and display them around the school? Can I shout at the top of my lungs 'WHICH LAZY FUCKING PARENT IS IT????!!!!' And what the frig happened to the nit nurse? My daughter is having so much time off school so I can treat her. AAAAGGGGGH! Rant over! Thank you :-) xxx

My DS1 is in year 1 and I feel your pain. There is at least one child in his class who has constant untreated nits. Have you tried vosene kids shampoo and leave in conditioner? It's meant to repel nits. I also comb ds's hair with the nitty gritty comb every other day because it's much easier to get rid of a few than a proper infestation.

I've tried the nit repellent but not the nitty gritty comb (have ordered it though, just waiting for it to arrive!). She has long, thick hair which she's proud of and won't let me cut (she dreams of being Rapunzel). I tie it up everyday and spray hairspray in it (apparently they can't grip). I think she's going to be one of those unfortunate kids that are prone to them :-( I just can't see why it's so difficult for the culprit parents to just treat their kids!

I feel your pain too.
I also have a DD with lovely, long, thick hair that she can nearly sit on. We have had nothing since Yr1 but now, in Yr4, she has had them 4 or 5 times since September
I now nit comb her hair every time I wash it, which takes ages but we haven't seen a live one for nearly 2 weeks. I also plait it and hope!

Good luck

Tea tree oil diluted with water in a spray bottle, spray on her every morning when you brush it, always put hair up in ponytail or better still plait.
Spray with the cheapest, basic hairspray you can find.
All that is a good deterrent.

Thank you. I feel like it's taking over my life! She innocently scratched her head yesterday and I ran at her with the nit comb! x

I know exactly how you feel, my dd had headline on and off until year 3. I used to comb it every 2 days with the nitty gritty comb which took hours as it was so thick.

The annoying thing was there were 2 children who had evident untreated headlice, we used to get rid of my DDs headlice, have 5 weeks of summer with absolutely no sign and then 1 week into new term it was back again

I think there should be nit nurses, as not every one feels the need to treat their child's hair and as you said OP the school can't or won't do anything

Are nit nurses completely non-existant now? Mumsnet campaign to bring them back!!!!

Have you tried tea tree oil shampoo and conditioner ?

My DD is 7 and has never had them and we use the tea tree stuff when we wash her hair and we only do it twice a week.

I've tried the tea tree oil :-( Her nan is a hair dresser so she has tried lots of things aswell. I just think she's going to be prone to them. Luckily my hair is so dead now I've never caught them of her :-)

I know I've said this before but the return of the Nit Nurse would make no difference whatsoever imo.

The reason it was so effective when I was a kid, was because any child found to have nits would be handed a large brown envelope to give to their parents...so everyone knew that child had them.

Now the 'shame' has been taken away from having head lice and any child found to have them would be told in confidence anyway, it seems parents just aren't as worried about their kids getting them.

That's depressed me a little. It was my last hope!

God, yes, I am sick of it too. Dd2 is in Y1 and the school can't tackle the family that doesn't treat for the reasons stated above. It's been driving me mad.

Dd2 has blonde very curly hair about an inch above her shoulders so the combing has been a PITA.

I think we've cracked it now though - I bought an electronic comb from Boots which I use on her dry hair after combing out knots with the tangle teazer. and then she gets a spray with organic tee tree leave-in conditioner. We've been nit-free for a week now (please God!)

I feel your pain. DD hasn't had them (touch wood) for ages but if she got them again I'd be tempted to use ivermectin on her. Gets rid of lice on chickens something fantastic.

I've been tempted to dye her hair and I'll admit to occasionally running the hair straightners through it to burn the bastards out. In my defence, I'm cracking up.

How long are you combing for? Are you doing your hair as well?

I comb for about 15 mins, doing all the sectioning. I check my hair aswell, so far as I've been lucky.

I get a sick pleasure from squashing them, while shouting 'bite my baby you little bastard?'

Have just googled and my chicken lice medicine is actually licensed for human head lice use in America! One tablet and the lice fall out.

www.drugs.com/comments/ivermectin/stromectol-for-head-lice.html

I'm moving to America!

You won't ever be 'rid' of them to be honest, not if your dd is susceptible. Some children just get them if they're going round, some don't. (Just like some people don't get eaten alives by midges in the summer, and some, like me, do).

You need the nitty gritty. It needs to be part of your hair washing routine.

You will still get the odd one, catch the odd egg, but you'll avoid infestation - and really, thats the nasty thing, the occassional nit/egg, caught with a nitty gritty is not something to be overly concerned about, you're still catching the buggers before they breed.

I spent a fortune on lotions and potions, repellents and strange old wive's tales, but nothing stops them if you're going to get them, you will.

So, nitty gritty is a nit management device really.

When you've washed yor hair and your dd's, just use a fair amount of regular conditioner, nitty grit comb through, if you catch one, then section the hair and be more thorough, but usually just a comb through will tell you if there are any in there.

We've gone from regular breeding grounds to probably one single egg found every other month.

I've just ordered some from an online pharmacy to have it in "just in case".

I know its not licensed over here, so people need to bear that in mind and make their own risk assessment over whether they trust USA licensing enough to consider it to be safe.

Thanks. I've ordered it so should show up by Monday. I've heard lots of good things about it (I always get attacked by midges too)

That made no sense. I didn't mean I'd be using the nitty gritty to prevent midge attacks!

Would be interesting to see you combing the grass to avoid midge attacks.

I'll give it a whirl! I have heard (though not yet tried) that Avon's Skin-So-Soft is meant to be good for stopping midge bites x